


General Music and Other Sciences: Part 3

by glamSKANKK



Series: General Music and Other Sciences [3]
Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), Tommy Ratliff (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - American Idol, Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-04
Updated: 2011-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-14 09:47:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glamSKANKK/pseuds/glamSKANKK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 3 of the series. When Adam Lambert is the new raven-haired boy in town, Tommy Joe Ratliff's world is turned upside-down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	General Music and Other Sciences: Part 3

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is all nothing but dirty lies. It's all fake, and I'm not making any bank off of this.

“I think it’s true.” He looked me dead in the eyes. “I think anything is possible if you believe it is. You don’t?”

“I never really thought about it…” I chugged down the last of my root beer float. “Okay. But what makes you think that he’d be interested in me? How can you even begin to think that he’s gay? You don’t know he is.”

“How do you know he isn’t?” Chuck grabbed my glass and cleaned up my little mess. So many people overlook the jobs of people in the food industry. That’s gotta suck.

“I don’t know…” I sat there, playing with a thin little napkin. I watched my fingers as I ripped it up into little pieces. I gave each little chunk a name. Hatred. Loneliness. Want. Adoration. Respect. And finally the biggest piece, Adam. I sighed. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I mean, it has only been a day. And I’m fuckin’ ass over tin cups already? I feel like a fucking sap. Or worse… Bella in Twilight.” He laughed at me. I couldn’t really blame him. I felt ridiculous myself.

“Look, you come here any time you need to talk, okay? I’m sorry that you’re having a rough time. But it is Monday, and we close at 4. It’s almost quarter till. I work here every day. You come, I’ll get you some ice cream and we’ll talk. Deal?” Wait. He was being nice? Miracles never cease to amaze!

“Uh… Shit, yeah! Thanks so much. Really.” I shook his hand and headed out the door. Again, I heard the bells ring but I didn’t dwell on it this time. It felt good to be leaving with a sliver of hope. For once. “Ah fuck.” I got to my car and remembered that I had to go home. My mom was going to be pissed that I was home late, and then she’d probably get after me for the shoe situation. “Maybe I don’t have to go home…”

And that was it. That was my decision. I didn’t know where I was going to go… But I knew sure as shit that I didn’t want to go home. Not yet. I drove around not really knowing where to go, until I eventually came to North Park. I snaked my way up to the pool where there were a lot of little groves, nooks and crannies tucked way back in the woods. There were rarely people there. It was getting dark. The sun sets earlier in December, obviously. I knew I was tired, but I didn’t think I was that tired. I checked my cell phone one last time. No messages. Of course not. And then I was out.

 

I woke up the next morning to harsh lights and the sound of banging on my window. “The fuck?” I raised my left arm to hide my eyes from the disgustingly bright light. “Ah shit.” Cops. Mother fucking cock sucker. I rolled down the window only to hear

“I’m gonna have to ask you to step out of the car. Do you have any idea what time it is and that’s it’s against regulation for you to be sleeping in this park overnight?”

Apparently it wasn’t the morning. I got out of the car. What was he going to do? Sobriety test me? Alright. No problem. Except for the face that I can’t stand on one foot, walk in a straight line or say the alphabet backwards. I went through the attempted motions of the test, handed over my information and laughed when the cop nearly shit a brick.

“You’re not of legal drinking age, son.”

“Yeah, I know. And I wasn’t drinking. I just can’t do coordinated shit. Breathalize me and I can prove to you that there isn’t shit in my system.” And he did just that. And of course, to no surprise of mine, I was clean.

“Just get outta here. Go home. If I catch you back here, you can expect one hell of a fine.” With that, he watched me get back in my car and then proceeded to follow me out of the park almost the whole way home.

I pulled in the driveway as quietly as I could, quickly snuck in the garage and headed for my bedroom. It was 4 in the morning, and I had school the next day. “Great.”

“TOMMY JOE. Where have you been? I have been worried sick about you!” My mom was still awake.

“Not here.”

“Obviously!”

“Obviously you didn’t care that much. I have my phone with me all of the time! You didn’t even bother to text me, let alone call. I’m going to bed. Oh, and I met someone today.” With that, I stormed off to my room.

“What do you mean you met someone?” She was relentless.

“A guy.”

“You’re gay?”

“WOW. Took you long enough to figure that one the fuck out. Night, mom. See you tomorrow.” I pulled down the covers, took off all of my clothes and shimmied down into my bed. After throwing an arm over my face, I went to sleep for the second time that night.

 

The morning routine was always the same. Wake up, shower, do makeup, fix my hair, meet Mom and Dad in the kitchen for food, brush my teeth then head out the door. Monday was when I met Adam, started talking to Daisy, went to the soda fountain and got busted for sleeping in the park. It’s now Thursday, thank god, and the week is almost over. Winter break starts tomorrow. I just have to make it through one more day. I haven’t really spoken to my parents much since the little episode in the middle of the night, Monday. I haven’t wanted or needed to. Guess I’m out of the closet, now.

I drove to school the same way I do everyday. I hit a few icy patches, but nothing detrimental. I parked in the same spot that I park in every day, went into the building and waited for the bell to ring. I looked for Daisy and Adam, but I didn’t see either of them, but then again in a school of over 1400 juniors and seniors, it’s hard to find people.

Par usual, I followed my schedule accordingly. Finally, it was time for lunch. Daisy, Adam and I had all been sitting together at lunch for the past two days, but today I didn’t see Adam.

“Hey, Daisy! Have you seen Adam today? I can’t find him anywhere.” I sat down next to her at out little round table, tossing my brown-bag lunch in front of me.

“He’s here. I saw him in passing. I think he said he had a quiz or test to make up. I don’t know, I couldn’t really hear him.” She started eating her school-bought salad. It actually looked pretty good.

“Huh. He’s only been here for like a week, though, right?” I pulled out my salami sandwich and was a little disappointed that there wasn’t any mustard on it. “Hmph.”

“I think you need to get out more.” She set her fork down and stole my sandwich.

“Um, that’s my lunch that you stole and why do you say that?” I pointed to my abducted food and watched her take a bite.

She scrunched up her face, “Ew. This needs mustard.”

“Yeah, I know. Can I have it back now?” I grabbed for my lunch and she punched my arm away. “Ow, bitch.”

She flashed me that cheeky smile of hers that I was used to by now. “I am going to set you up on a date. I made reservations for you at the LeMont on Mount Washington for tomorrow night at six. It’s upscale, so don’t look like an idiot. Wear something nice like a button down and trousers in the least. The reservations are for two.”

“You’re setting me up on a blind date.” It wasn’t even a question.

“Yep. You’ll love it! I know you will.” She took another mangled chunk out of my sandwich. . “Trust me.” She finally handed my sandwich over with more than one bite missing.

“How do I know I can trust you?” I finally got to take a satisfying bite out of my food.

“And again, how do you know that you can’t?” She raised an eyebrow, and then proceeded to bathe her salad in Italian dressing.

 

Finally, it was time for General Music. Daisy found me in the hallway before class and we walked in together. We sat in our usual seats, with one seat left in the aisle to my right for Adam.

With less than a minute left before the bell rang, Adam came jogging into the room. “Sorry! Swimming in gym.”

Adam. In trunks. Why couldn’t I be in that gym class? “Fuck” I cursed under my breath. My jeans suddenly felt really tight. I tried to readjust myself in my seat to no avail.

“Ha, you okay, Tommy?” Adam sauntered over to his seat and sat unusually close to me.

“Yeah, I’m fine! Where were you at lunch?”

“Oh I had to stay after math… I bombed a quiz earlier this week and Mrs. Weet let me retake it in hopes that I could bring my grade up.” He looked a little embarrassed.

“Yeah, I hear ya. I’m not really great at English. I definitely can’t act or sing.” I couldn’t help but laugh a little at myself.

Before we could continue that conversation any further, Mr. Matthews walked in. “Okay guys, get your instruments. Today we’re gonna just do somewhat of a jam-session. I was thinking we could try to play Metallica’s Enter Sandman. So we’ll listen to it once or twice, then attempt to play it. I’m not expecting anything like, absolutely amazing yet. But if you guys like it, we could keep playing it until we got it. That cool?” There was a murmur of agreement from the 5 of us. But on the inside I was flipping SHIT. My favorite fucking song? Fuck yeah! “Cool! Okay so go get your things and we’ll get started. Tommy, do you know how to play bass?”

“Yeah, want me to do that instead of guitar?”

“Yeah, please. Then Daisy, grab the electric guitar. Adam, you know the words?”

“Um, it’ll be a little bit like karaoke, but I can wing it!” His face lit up.

He was going to sing. Fina-fucking-lly. We all got settled in with our things and took our seats. Daisy latched onto my arm while we listened to Enter Sandman twice through.

“Alright, here we go.” He counted out the beginning beat, and off we went.

We played the intro, and then he started. Adam was singing. His voice was the sweetest, smoothest, dreamiest most amazing thing I have ever heard. Dare I say angelic?

“Tommy, you okay?” Daisy was still playing.

“What? Oh, yeah. Sorry.” I picked up right with the rest of the class. I looked over at her and she was smiling. She knew why I stopped playing. I glanced over at Adam and noticed that he jerked hard to the front. I think I just caught him staring at me. The look on his face said it all; he knew why I stopped playing, too.

 

Class went really, really well! I can’t even begin to say how pleased I was with how we sounded. It was amazing. And that voice… just… holy shit.

“Hey, do you guys want to go to the soda fountain after school? It’s like 3 miles away from here. I can drive.” I offered while Daisy and I were putting our guitars away. Adam was sitting in his seat leaning toward us, keeping easy conversation.

“YES! Tommy, that’s an awesome idea! Who doesn’t love a little ice cream?” Daisy nearly strangled me with a jump-hug, and we both fell over. I love this girl. “Adam, you in?” She was on top of me in the most inappropriate kind of way for school.

“Yeah, why not? Shotgun, by the way.” He smiled and pulled the holder from Daisy’s ponytail.

“Dick.”

“Bitch.”

“Fag.”

“Cracker.”

“Wait… What?” Daisy, Adam and I all doubled over in laughter. The bell rang, but Daisy and I stayed laying on the floor. I was watching Adam get his things together. Bending over to pick up his books. Swaying those hips from the left to the right to shirt his backpack…

“You’re staring at him again, Tommy.” Daisy caught me. Again.

“Sorry.” I dropped my head letting my bangs fall in my face to hide my obvious blushing.

“Hey, man! I don’t care! I just don’t want him to catch you staring at his ass.”

“Who staring at what ass?” Adam whipped his head around and made that face. The one that says “I totally just heard what you said, I think… Maybe…” The completely adorable one.

“Nothing, Adam! Come on, let’s go. I want a hot fudge sundae.”

She was definitely turning out to be my best friend.


End file.
